Turning Plastic Bottles Into Light Bulbs

In the suburbs of the Philippines the houses are built very close to each other. Even during daytime it is very dark inside the homes. In some areas just outside Manila, the capital of the Philippines, people cannot even access electricity. Students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came up with something very simple but yet very effective.

They have enlightened thousands of households with used plastic soda bottles filled with water and some bleach, called Isang Litrong Liwanag: a Liter of Light. Turning bottles into a more useful product is another great example of upcycling. The houses are now more livable without using any energy source but sunlight and without making large openings in ceilings and walls.

“The Solar Bottle Bulb is based on the principles of Appropriate Technologies — a concept that provides simple and easily replicable technologies that address basic needs in developing communities.”

With this project, the non-profit organization MyShelter Foundation aims to light up houses of one million households by the end of 2012. Click here to watch a video of the project on the Reuters website.

Once upon a time, Fotomat was a widespread suburban phenomenon in the United States. With over 4,000 drive-through photo kiosks mainly located at parking lots nearby supermarkets or strip malls, their appearance characterizes the suburban spirit of the mid-eighties. Most of these remarkable Fotomat kiosks have been abandoned since the service provided by the company…

My mother always told me that recycling was a good thing to do for the environment (thanks, Mom!). Plenty of architects are catching onto the trend: we’ve written previously about a façade made from a thousand doors, recycled bus shelters in Uganda’s bustling capital city, and, of course, shipping container urbanism. There certainly isn’t a shortage of useable material on this planet that begs to be re-made into something new.

Hong Kong Outside is the book that comes with its counter part Hong Kong Inside — the book we reviewed on Friday. Both books are photographic collections made by Michael Wolf and published in a beautiful cassette by Peperoni Books. Hong Kong Outside is about the facade of a city that develops in a incredible pace on a small piece of land.

The area of Falmouth close to Montego Bay in Jamaica is famous for its Luminous Lagoon, where water naturally illuminates due to the micro-organisms living in the shallow, warm area where salt and fresh water meets. The fish and giant rays can even be observed from a boat, creating a certain discomfort if one is…